Dark Crisis #1 Discussion/Spoilers

[gambit2051]

I honestly feel like we are seeing the collapse of DC Comics...

Also...wasn't Gar combined with Vic? I hated that, but undoing it only to "kill" Gar...really?

[BohemiaDrinker]

I liked it.

But while this is the most DC thing that could ever be, it felt like the first issue of a Marvel event. (Not a criticism, just a curious observation)

[Kirk Brent]

I honestly feel like we are seeing the collapse of DC Comics...

Also...wasn't Gar combined with Vic? I hated that, but undoing it only to "kill" Gar...really?

The DCU officially died when the WB execs brought Dan DiDio and Jim Lee back. They quickly upended Rebirth with the help of Brian Michael Bendis. The DCU had been on life support since 2011 but it had a chance for rehab with Rebirth. WB is just using DC's corpse to keep IPs secure.

[Drako]

lol y'all are so extra.

[Kirk Brent]

My undoubtedly unpopular thoughts on Dark Crisis #1.

- I'd be FAR more interested if Jon Kent was still a twelve or thirteen year-old Superboy, with no mention of his sexual preference, trying to put together a team of heroes to fill the shoes of the Justice League and/or attempt to determine if they're dead or somehow still alive. Jon Kent as "Superman" is ludicrous and uninteresting. I think DC knew Jon aged up was essentially a boring character and decided to introduce the bisexual angle to cover for it. Superboy, meanwhile, had a lot of potential and was a far more interesting character even after two short years. Also, the characters "Jon" has assembled are not interesting in their current forms (except Damian, who has never been interesting) and can't carry emotional investment with the JLA gone.

- The general state of the current DCU is what hamstrings this book (and what doesn't get in the way of something like Waid's WF.) To get to this "next generation" status with heroes who don't really work as legacy heroes, we had to have some pretty big gymnastics: a twelve-year old boy is imprisoned and tortured for seven years by a man who looks and sounds like his father and has his powers, Bruce Wayne had to lose his fortune so that Lucius Fox could get it and then allow Jace Fox to play Batman, and Wonder Woman died/ascended or some such so we could get Nubia as Wonder Woman. Not to mention that the truly awful storylines of the past three or so years (Bendis' work on Superman and Legion, Heroes In Crisis, the Dark Death Night Metal Knights whatever) have made the comic book DCU not much better than the truly awful mess that was the Arrowverse.

- Not one reader who's paying attention really cares that the JLA is dead, much less how (not if) they return. It was revealed months ago that the heroes would go off into their own "dream worlds" and even the few novice readers out there know that death is not permanent.

-Finally, Pariah was a well-written and tragic character in COIE. Had a Pariah mini-series been released that explained his history, his role in the COIE, and where/what he's been up to since, we might care more about his quest here. Like Alexander Luthor in Infinite Crisis, we hardly know him now and therefore have little connection.

Meanwhile, Geoff Johns is telling a far more compelling and (IMO) meaningful story in Flashpoint Beyond. There's an indication there that the pre-COIE Multiverse isn't gone (the stupidly-named "Multiverse 2 as seen in various stories) and that elements of Doomsday Clock will be addressed and expanded. I'd much rather read that than a non-event event book that only exists to try and prop up relaunches set for December or the new year.

[Factor]

Hate how the Titans are treated yet again. Without the JL there to babysit them they're nothing? Ugh.
Plus Beast Boy could totally have gotten out of that by turning into an insect. Hopefully that was just a fake out, because it would make zero sense to have him shot like that, even if he survives.

I don't get why Hal treated Wally like that. Why would he ask about the League after encountering him teaming-up with Jon? That made it seem like he doesn't consider Wally as being on the League's level.

Jace was the worst this issue. He comes off as both generic Bat and unlikable as hell.

[nightw1ng]

I'm not really feeling this series, and I think it's largely because DC has burned me out on multiversal crisis stories. I mean, they just had one in Death Metal last year. And like with Death Metal's precursor, Dark Knights: Metal, DC has another seemingly unrelated multiversal story being written by Geoff Johns going on at the same time (Doomsday Clock and now Flashpoint Beyond).

[Felipe Silveira]

Hate how the Titans are treated yet again. Without the JL there to babysit them they're nothing? Ugh.
Plus Beast Boy could totally have gotten out of that by turning into an insect. Hopefully that was just a fake out, because it would make zero sense to have him shot like that, even if he survives.

I don't get why Hal treated Wally like that. Why would he ask about the League after encountering him teaming-up with Jon? That made it seem like he doesn't consider Wally as being on the League's level.

Jace was the worst this issue. He comes off as both generic Bat and unlikable as hell.

I felt it too.
My fear is that this is the purpose of the event.

[Kaijudo]

Jon IS desperate.

Black Adam objecting about Dr. Light made no sense. He was spot on about everything else.

I'd disagree with that. Ted and Jaime bring completely different skill sets to a team. The fact they have the same code name is irrelevant.

And I've said it before, but I'd read an ongoing Justice League featuring this line-up (yeah, even Harley) a billion times before another one where they just fill in the Big 7 blanks with different iterations of the same identities. Most of the heroes on Jon's team are more qualified to be on the League than the 5G characters, but because they're a "Bat-" or a "Wonder-," by all means, let's get them in there.

[Mai Zen]

I honestly feel like we are seeing the collapse of DC Comics...

Also...wasn't Gar combined with Vic? I hated that, but undoing it only to "kill" Gar...really?

Forgot which book or from a preview, but Cybeast is Raven illusion

[Johnny]

I don't get why Hal treated Wally like that. Why would he ask about the League after encountering him teaming-up with Jon? That made it seem like he doesn't consider Wally as being on the League's level.

Because they were the only ones there with no other JL member in sight. I'm not sure where this idea of him looking down on Wally is coming from, all I got from that page is he was surprised that no other hero was there with them when a bunch of supervillains were attacking the streets. The bigger issue is him not knowing what happened to the League in the first place but that's a different story.

I felt it too.
My fear is that this is the purpose of the event.

Williamson benched Barry by sending him to that dimensional prison in order to bring Wally back as the main Flash again, and this is supposed to be some "plot" to end up portraying Wally as not being on the League's level? They'd make a whole event about legacy and feature one of the brightest examples of that legacy aspect prominently in it, just to end up proving some point that he doesn't belong standing next to the other "big guns"? That's absurd. Didio is not there anymore and Williamson is a Wally fan. I doubt you have anything to worry about.

[Rend20]

Williamson benched Barry by sending him to that dimensional prison in order to bring Wally back as the main Flash again

While I agree with your overall point, that wasn't actually Williamson's call.

He mentioned in an interview that he originally asked for Wally for the Infinite Frontier series and editorial is the one that countered with Barry because they wanted Wally to lead the Flash book. He said it worked out better that way given Barry's relevance to the multiverse concept.

[Frontier]

Williamson previously said there was a specific reason Doctor Light is part of Dark Crisis so Black Adam asking her about her age most likely wasn't meant to be a random comment.

Is the implication that she's stopped aging on a molecular level?

Hate how the Titans are treated yet again. Without the JL there to babysit them they're nothing? Ugh.
Plus Beast Boy could totally have gotten out of that by turning into an insect. Hopefully that was just a fake out, because it would make zero sense to have him shot like that, even if he survives.

I expected Williamson to treat the Titans better unless this is to give Nightwing the freedom to lead the next generation...if Slade doesn't take him out next.

While I agree with your overall point, that wasn't actually Williamson's call.

He mentioned in an interview that he originally asked for Wally for the Infinite Frontier series and editorial is the one that countered with Barry because they wanted Wally to lead the Flash book. He said it worked out better that way given Barry's relevance to the multiverse concept.

I wonder how he would've worked it with the overall storyline with Pariah.

[Factor]

Because they were the only ones there with no other JL member in sight. I'm not sure where this idea of him looking down on Wally is coming from, all I got from that page is he was surprised that no other hero was there with them when a bunch of supervillains were attacking the streets. The bigger issue is him not knowing what happened to the League in the first place but that's a different story.

Williamson made it a point to discard Kobra as a real threat, thought. So if they’re really not such a big deal, why would Hal be expecting the entire League to be there handling them?
These kind of team-ups happen all the time in-universe without the League being there (heck, I think less than two months ago Wally and Jon had another team-up).
It’s just weird to have Hal make that face at Wally and ask where the League is if they’re not actually dealing with a big threat that would actually warrant their involvement.

The scene just didn’t work. It’s like Williamson is making each character react a certain way even if that breaks character or basic in-universe logic.

[Gaius]